Six sites go live with GIG-BE

Six sites go live with GIG-BE

By Dawn S. Onley

Oct 04, 2004

The Global Information Grid-Bandwidth Expansion program is running at six locations in the eastern United States.

This is the initial operational milestone in the Defense Department's plan to build a single DOD-wide backbone network. The goal is to ramp up GIG-BE at 92 sites by next September, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Harry D. Raduege, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency.

So far, GIG-BE is on schedule, Raduege said. The six sites were all online last week by the Sept. 30 deadline.

'As a transformational initiative, the GIG-BE initial operational capability marks a significant foundational piece in the future of high-speed, high-capacity network capability for DOD,' he said. 'It will facilitate rich new net-centric opportunities for our nation's warfighters and those who support them, and addresses one of DOD's transformational goals of leveraging IT to connect troops and their operations."

Through the $900 million program, DISA is creating a Synchronous Optical Network with throughput of 10 Gbps for Defense users. The planned GIG-BE hubs generally rely on DISN-leased connectivity services now that range from T1 at 1.544 Mbps to OC-48 at 2.4 Gpbs.

'GIG-BE is supporting Internet-like capabilities over state-of-the-art optical networking technology to implement a core network that interconnects critical DOD and intelligence facilities throughout the world,' said Tony Montemarano, GIG-BE program director. 'The use of advanced optical networking technologies will help eliminate bandwidth as a concern for these locations while the embedded IP router networks will facilitate net-centric operations."